She described Tory members making lewd gestures in the Commons chamber when female MPs got up to speak “like they were weighing their breasts”, blaming the culture partly on “men working long hours away from home” and an attitude that “what happened in Westminster stayed in Westminster”.

“The world has moved on. Things were worse then, but there is a still a long way to go. I hope we are going to see a sea change in attitudes,” she added.

Abbott said the Labour Party had put in place systems to make it easier for victims of sexual harassment and assault to report such incidents.

Downing Street said such behaviour was “completely unacceptable” and urged women affected to report it to the police.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also warned of a “warped and degrading culture” where the abuse of women had gone unchallenged for too long.